Cities find that aesthetic screening walls can become an ugly headache

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Stewart F. House/Special Contributor

The screening walls near Parker and Custer roads in Plano are in need of repair. Homeowners in the Teakwood Estates neighborhood were surprised to learn that the walls were their responsibility, one city official said.

In hopes of making their busy streets more attractive, most suburbs in North Texas have long required that homebuilders put walls between residential neighborhoods and the road.

But many older cities are now learning that those screening walls can eventually turn into eyesores. Over the years, many have lost paint, eroded or begun to lean.

Fixing them can be expensive and difficult, and city governments must find ways to balance financial concerns, aesthetics and fear of angering residents.

The walls came into common use in the 1970s. Most developers were happy to build them. But those developers were long gone before they started to erode.

Recently, Plano began a comprehensive review of the walls in its city. Officials estimated there are about 140 miles of them within their borders. Those range from natural walls made of bushes and trees to elaborate brick structures. A few are little more than painted slabs of concrete.

The city is responsible for about half of them because of a program in which the government agreed to take ownership once they were built. Officials say the cost of maintaining them continues to incrementally increase.

In neighboring Richardson, officials recently launched a citywide wall improvement program. The city plans to spend about $240,000 power-washing and repainting all 17 miles of its walls. The process will take about two years, officials said.

“A lot of these walls were constructed in the 1970s when our neighborhoods were developed,” said Don Magner, assistant city manager. “They are coming up on anywhere from 35 to 40 years old, and this is just a way to make sure they are an asset, rather than something that takes away from aesthetics.”

He said Richardson also occasionally uses bond money to repair walls that are significantly damaged.

But Richardson won’t be spending money on improving privately owned walls, Magner said. That is the responsibility of the homeowner associations.

Other cities have found that measure difficult to enforce.

Taking action

In 2011, the Sachse City Council authorized its staff to sue one of its neighborhoods for not repairing a broken wall. The case was later settled out of court, and the wall was repaired for an estimated $15,000.

Plano, meanwhile, has found that some homeowner associations aren’t even aware that the walls are their responsibility. Some associations barely even exist.

Public Works Director Gerald Cosgrove recently told the Plano City Council that his staff has approached homeowner groups about fixing their walls, only to learn that the associations haven’t met in 10 years.

In many cases, the wall was the only common property the association owned. Without a pool or other facility that the neighbors cared about, the associations quietly fizzled. Even if membership was mandatory, the groups had trouble recruiting members and collecting fees. As original homeowners moved out, the associations would simply disappear.

“The HOA effectively dissolves, and then you are talking about going in a subdivision and possibly going after each individual,” Cosgrove said.

Unwelcome surprise

In one case, homeowners in the Teakwood Estates neighborhood near Custer Road and West Parker Road approached the city with complaints about their walls, only to learn that caring for them was the neighborhood’s responsibility.

One particularly bad section of wall stood exclusively in the yard of one house at the edge of the neighborhood. It had cracked concrete and discolored paint. One part looked as if it was about to fall over.

City officials determined that it technically belonged to the individual homeowner. Fixing it would cost thousands of dollars.

Other cities, like Garland, have offered grants to neighborhoods that are interested in improving their walls or other aesthetic features. But some Plano City Council members worry that taking over the care might encourage neighborhoods to intentionally neglect their responsibilities.

“While we have got to find a solution to find out ways to keep up the appearance of our city, we have got to balance that with the realities and how much we want to encumber ourselves long term,” said Plano council member Ben Harris at the recent meeting.

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